THE CITY VIEW

bring the country’s tax burden below the absurd high at which it currently stands, roughly equivalent to the time we were still paying back World War II debts. But it would also create an almighty brouhaha with the nation’s self-appointed fiscal watchdogs, for whom the share of the economy controlled by the state can only ever grow. Thank goodness, then, for work being done amongst some of Westminster’s more free-market think tanks.

The Taxpayers’ Alliance have developed a dynamic taxation model, which allows –and the fact this sounds radical is a sad state of affairs –the different behaviours engendered by tax changes to be factored into the public finances. The aim is to break away from the idea that a tax cut somehow ‘costs’ the Treasury, rather than simply giving the government less to play with in the first place. If it sounds academic, it’s not: it’s a philosophical point, and the current lingua franca comes from the wrong-headed starting point that money belongs to the government and only in its charity and mercy does it allow you to spend it on what you want,